The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-25
WORKING WOMEN OF NEW YORK.
Some of the Many Ways in Which They
Earn Living.
ICOpNri1hted lsS1.


have put this question in various quar-
tiers within few days past and business
men and women, employers of women and
women employed, have given me curious and
valuable information as regards the situa-
ton in New York.
October sees an influx of young women
into the city. The business as one might
call it without exaggeration, the business
revolution-that has made something more
than so per cent. of the army of people at
work in the dry goods stores women, that
has made a quarter part of all the telegraph
operators in the country women, that has
made from a fifth to sixth of the New York
typesetters women, that has made more than
half the typewriters women, that has made
feminine faces familiar as clerks, bookkeep
ers, secretaries and even errand girls in the
larger counting rooms, in the general offices
and i'll the lawyers chambers keeps up the
migration the year round, but the move
ment cityward is most decided in the fall
Women come from all parts of the country
to earn their living, to seek their fortunes in
New York How much of a fortune they
are likely to find is the point | have tried to
investigate.
The Western Union Telegraph Company
is one Of the large employers OF women in
New York. and Mr. Brennan. the assistant
manager of the main operating room, very
kindly answered the questions which put
to him. Mr.. Brennan is a man of long ex-
perience in telegraphy, and probably 10
more catholic judge of the work or the
prospects of the women operators could be
found.
High up above the roofs and many of the
towers of the city, SO high that the hustle of
Broadway is dwarfed into the evolutions OF
industrious pignies, some 800 men and
women sit side by side, each at an electrical
machine connected with wire that feeds
the pulse of the world outside. Messenger
girls are skipping this way and that up and
down the long aisles, and the electric car
riers overhead are laden with messages to
be sent out, messages received and messages
to be placed on file
eve have here about $50 women opera
tors said Mr.. Brennan in answer to an in
quiry about the proportion of women to the
number OF men employed There are fifty
other women, perhaps, engaged as clerks or
accountants, making POO in all attached to
this room. In any of the smaller telegraph
Offices about the city you are more likely to
find a woman in charge than a man
Throughout the country, in the railroad
service the case is different, because the
railroad telegraph offices are often owned
jointly by the telegraph and railroad COM
panes and man is employed as operator
and ticket seller or freight agent at once
class of offices into account the proportion
of women in the United States is nearly one
to four. As this company has IA 900 offices
and not far from 5000 operators it follows
that we have more than 5000 women in our
employ"
How about their efficiency and the pros
poets for their future, and do you find
women easy to deal with from business
point of viewg'
AS n fhair ministry and yao7,lo,.i+r- Of
work there is little to choose between them
and the men," was the reply Il should say
that the women had the better WILL the men
the better ability to perform. A man may
be at the very door ready for his days work
when he meets friend and goes off without
notice for a days spree. A woman will
never do that, but if she is detained at home
sick the results TO us are the same. For
Their efficiency some women make excellent
operators, but women do not average as
well as men. We cannot often put them on
the heavier lines"
Women as rule show less ability than
menP
Probably. though that does not follow
necessarily Women have not been in the
business as long, and many of them are
younger than the men. Women have not
shown any aptitude yet for the best paying
parts of the business. There are first-class
operators on telegraphic machines among
women, but for testing for faults, trying
circuits or delicate experimentation of any
sort they have no liking"
And their payT
From $40 to $50 month It takes a
woman extraordinarily expert to earn $50.
1t amounts to about two-thirds the wages
received by man of substantially the same
ability. The difference is made partly, no
doubt, because we cannot call on them for
night work.
"Do the telegraphic schools amount to
anything!'
"A great many of them amount to moth
ing. They guarantee positions, but they
can't fit a girl for one. The Cooper Union
school is good one"
Where do your operators come from,
then!n
eve make them right here. Those little
messenger girls-'pickups' we call them
practice every day at the dinner hour. They
all aspire to be operators and before one
knows it they get the business down fine"
The Western Union does not separate its
women from its men in any way. They
work side by side, each woman in the ope-
rating room having probably at one time or
another been neighbor to every man. No
evil consequences from the Joint employ
ment OF the sexes are reported, but, on the
contrary, it proves an excellent practical
education for the women. Wages have no
apparent upward tendency, ana while some
OF the best operators are making good
living, the general opening for women is
not as good, probably, as in some other
fields
MORE WOMEN ARE EMPLOYED
by the dry goods houses than in any single
occupation, excluding domestic service and
factory labor, in the city Mr. Moore, the
Superintendent of Ridleys', the largest
shopping house on the east side, when APP
pealed to for information told me that of
the 2,400 employees of the firm rather more
than 60 per cent. are women, and the pro-
portion is increasing. A majority of the
departments of the store are in charge of
women, with other women as their assist
ants. Women are employed as buyers in
few departments and some perform the du-
tles Of floor walkers though this ordinarily
involves too much fatigue.
Ia reply to my questions as to the salts
faction given by the work of women and
the possibility of employing them in respon-
sible positions, | was informed that the
amount of business sense and practical
ability displayed by many saleswomen was
something surprising. They were quite as
bright as men and not infrequently did bet
ter work. They could not handle dress
goods which were too heavy for them, and
there were some departments in which
women customers seemed to have insupera-
BILE objections to being waited on by their
own sex, but in most lines III which femi-
nine taste was called into requisition they